The present disclosure relates to the field of electronic communication devices, and specifically to the use of electronic communication devices that are capable of displaying video files. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to electronic communication devices that display keyframes from video files.
A keyframe is defined as a frame from a video file that has been selected to represent the video file and/or content from the video file. For example, a video file server may present, on a graphical user interface (GUI), offerings of multiple video files. Rather than only identifying the offerings on the GUI by their text names, the video file server will also show a frame from each video file on the GUI. For example, if a first video file is of a kitten playing with a ball, then the keyframe for that video file will show a “snapshot” frame of the kitten and the ball on the GUI. If a second video file is of a singer performing in concert, then the keyframe for that video file will show on the GUI a “snapshot” frame of the singer while performing. Thus, a user can quickly identify the type and content of video files being offered by looking at the keyframes.
In some cases, the video file server will show just one keyframe for each video. In other cases, the video file server will show multiple keyframes for each video. The multiple keyframes may be shown simultaneously, or they may be shown consecutively (either serially or randomly). Consecutive displays of the keyframes may be prompted by a user hovering a mouse over a first displayed keyframe, or they may be automatically displayed in a consecutive manner.